


Until There's Nothing Left

by hedonistic_opportunist



Category: Naruto
Genre: Introspection, M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 06:42:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14847720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedonistic_opportunist/pseuds/hedonistic_opportunist
Summary: They meet twice to three times a year: an irregular, trivial event that he still jots down in his calendar.





	Until There's Nothing Left

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback/criticism would be love ❤

* * *

 

They meet twice to three times a year: an irregular, trivial event that he still jots down in his calendar. Just because. Just so.

 

Like that he can maybe pretend that it’s non-trivial, after all.

 

Not that it is ever anything _but_.

 

Sasuke shows up on time, uniformed in a suit and tie like a dutiful soldier. He orders black tea, and talks about this and that, without ever touching on anything important (not his family, not _her_ ).

 

Sometimes, when Naruto closes his eyes and lets his ears do the seeing for him, he imagines that the man in front of him is the one he used to love.

 

(He's always loved Sasuke’s voice, and how it hits vowels just right: low and still somewhat softly.)

 

And the memory is like a punch to the gut -- because he can still remember how Sasuke used to smile. A small smile that slowly grew and spread to reach his dark eyes -- those dark eyes that used to make Naruto’s knees buckle and his heart melt.

 

All he sees as he opens his eyes now is casual indifference. Sasuke looks at him like he’s a colleague, the textbook definition of a perfect stranger.

 

Not someone he used to kiss, not someone he used to stay up with all night and talk about everything. Naruto remembers how they spoke about running away and becoming rounin, or ninja. He remembers how they used to explore the outskirts of Tokyo and come up with all sorts of adventures.

 

He remembers all the promises that turned to unfulfilled dreams.

 

And, as he sits there in that nearly empty cafe, he can nearly muster the energy to get angry about all of this -- his hands curl to a fist, and he imagines himself confronting Sasuke about what they used to have. About what they could still have.

 

Yet, Sasuke only talks about mortgages and moving abroad. It’s then that Naruto realises, as he’s always prone to do during these meetings, that the man he loved is gone.

 

The Sasuke in front of him is nothing but a ghost, a cheap imitation of something he used to cherish. Or that’s what Naruto tells himself, because it's so much easier to just go along with the charade this way. He doesn’t want to have to think about it too much.

 

He doesn’t want to be angry or lose the last piece of Sasuke he still owns. In the end, even this is better than not having Sasuke in his life that all --

 

(Because that would mean part of him really is dead and irretrievably gone.)

 

So he will pretend, and pretend until there’s nothing left.

 

* * *

 

 


End file.
